September 24, 2023
Today's episode of "can you believe the arena-entertainment district hype?"
Several leaders in Norman have stated that the SEC fans "travel well." I have asked for evidence of this from individual who I have heard making this claim. City Manager Pyle said he heard this from OU folks. Visit Norman leader has not responded to my request for supporting documentation.
I decided to address this in a DIY fashion. An easy first cut at addressing this is to look at home vs. away attendance at SEC basketball games. I picked Ole Miss because their average home game attendance was just a little lower than OU's in 2022. Also the university built a new basketball arena in 2016 so they have sec+newish arena experience as a comparison.
The one-year snap shot suggests that the "SEC travels well" claim might not apply to men's basketball. Ole Miss did not sell out, even when playing the big time SEC basketball teams.
On a related note, the revised UNP Arena plan has been paired down to 8,000 basketball capacity (if you believe the bits of details scattered about) from 10,000 proposed in 2018. This is more realistic of the types of crowds expected for Men's basketball games.
Bottom line: even OU Foundation (the UNP land owners and developer of record) is not expecting larger crowds for OU men's basketball games after joining the SEC. My guess (without being shown the math) is that the feasibility studies estimate spending related to the new arena without subtracting current spending related to Lloyd Noble events.
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